Blockchain News 12.09.2018

Huobi acquires titauhia Tapone crypto haere BitTrade

Huobi Group is to expand its trading services to Japan via an imminent deal to purchase local licensed cryptocurrency exchangeBitTrade. BitTrade is currently one of 16 licensed exchanges in Japan and also a member of the Japanese Virtual Currency Exchange Association.

Huobi’s chief financial officer, Chris Lee, commented on the acquisition: “Leveraging on BitTrade’s leadership team and its Japanese government-approved license, this is just the beginning as we look to grow BitTrade into the most dominant player in the Japanese cryptocurrency market.”

Major crypto companies form DC lobbying group

A number of blockchain funds, exchanges and startups plan to lobby Washington, DC lawmakers with the new Blockchain Association. This new organization would focus on both education and legal changes as part of an effort to normalize relations between crypto startups and lawmakers, advocating for reasonable regulation. Coinbase, Circle, Digital Currency Group, Polychain Capital and Protocol Labs are among the association’s founding members.

One of the association’s first employees is former Senate aide and Overstock.com blockchain lobbyist named Kristin Smith. She told the Post that she would “guide” the organization as it starts out, ma te parau e, “I’ve been spending a lot of time doing a lot of the basic education work in this space … I’m excited to focus exclusively on these issues.”

Blockchain News 12.09.2018

Criminal behind $1.8M cryptocurrency theft facing 10 matahiti

Justice has prevailed for the victim of a hostage and robbery, as the man behind the $1.8 million virtual currency theft is expected to be sentenced to 10 years behind bars. Fortunately, the victim eventually escaped from his captors. The perpetrator, Louis Meza, age 35, is actually “friends” with the victim and knew that he had a large amount of Ether stored in his wallet at his house. Meza, e te 3 of his cohorts robbed the victim.

The criminals put a hood over the victim’s head and held him for several hours. They forced him to hand over his home keys as well as his “crypto keys” (the information needed to gain access to his cryptocurrency wallet.) The criminals then broke into the victim’s house and stole the memory stick that contained his crypto. Unfortunately for the hoodlums, they were caught on surveillance video doing the crime. The victim managed to escape and run to a nearby grocery store where he called 911. Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance Jr. te parau “Louis Meza orchestrated a 21st-century stick-up. Then 21st-century investigators brought him swiftly to justice, securing a landmark conviction in an undeveloped area of the law.” Louis Meza was also ordered to forfeit ~$100,000 worth of SALT tokens & 84 bitcoins (~$500,000). In the end, te-atoa-tia atu ma te maitai e ua ora tona cryptocurrency.